20 arrested for assaulting villager over conversion charge
Jalaun: Police in northern India have arrested 20 people from a hard-line Hindu group for assaulting and parading a young man on a donkey accusing him of trying to convert three people to Christianity. Police said Awadesh Savita, 35, was attacked Jan. 29 in Rendhar village of Uttar Pradesh state. Some 20 men barged into his house, assaulted him and his wife and took Savita to the nearby Orai town. There they hired a barber to shave his head, half of his moustache and one eyebrow. They also put a garland of shoes on him and paraded around town before taking him to the police station, accusing him of trying to convert others. Some 200 people took part in this incident.
“The complaint is not valid as preliminary investigation has proved that Awadesh Savita was not involved in conversion activities,” Manoj Kumar, police official at the Orai police station told ucanews.com. Police arrested 20 people belonging to the Bajrang Dal, a militant Hindu organization. “More arrests will follow in the coming days,” he added. Savita’s wife Rekha told ucanews.com that some villagers were upset about their family because of their interest in Christ after they sought treatment for their 7-year-old son at a Christian hospital in Varanasi.
Rekha maintains that she and her family did not convert to Christianity. “Why would we engage in conversion? What will we benefit from that?” she asked. The Uttar Pradesh state government has no law banning religious conversions but Christian leaders say hard-line groups are against conversions in the state, where Hindus from 80 percent of its 200 million people. Christians are negligible minority in the state. Christian leaders also say attacks against religious minorities as well as those in favor of such groups have increased across India ever since the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in New Delhi almost two years ago.
Village fines people for saying ‘Christian’ prayers
Julwania: A village council in central India has fined four people for practicing Christianity and is closely watching them to prevent them continuing to do so. The Dahar village council in Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh, fined the four 5,000 rupees (US$75) each, Shankar Singh, one of those fined told ucanews.com Feb 4. The punishment on Jan. 19 came five days after police arrested and later released 12 people who had gathered at Singh’s house.
The arrests followed accusations by a Hindu group that the people at the gathering were attempting to convert to Christianity. Members of the Hindu group surrounded the house and called police, Singh said. “We are under tremendous pressure to give up our faith in Christ,” the 40-year-old told ucanews.com, adding that he had been prevented from leaving the village for the past two weeks. He and the other three denied allegations they had converted to Christianity or indulged in any conversion activity. “I am a member of the Bhilala tribe and continue to be in it,” Singh said. “I’m simply happy to attend Christian meetings and prayers, which have helped me overcome my financial worries, alcoholism, unhappiness and other negativities in my life.” The state, run by pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party, has an anti-conversion law that criminalizes conversion if done without permission from government authorities. Fines and jail terms are stipulated for those involved in “fraudulent” and “forced” conversion and for “alluring” people to change their religion. Fined for breaching harmony Singh recounted that for more than two weeks he has been closely watched by a self-appointed “vigilance team” and that he and the other people fined were “prevented from leaving the village.”
The village of some 2,000 people has only four people attending Christian prayers, the rest follow tribal traditions, Singh said. Jurla Bhai, 36, who also was fined, said the council threatened “to expell us from the village after accusing us of converting to Christianity and going against local traditions.”
Bhai also denied converting. Village headman Mukud Randa confirmed the imposition of the fines. They were fined for “breaching peace and harmony” in the village and “picking arguments with their own family members,” he said. In breaching harmony, “they were refusing to offer prayers and sacrifices to their goddesses and eat food offered in our worship,” Randa said. “This led to family discord and the fine was to discipline them and to keep the community together,” he said. Those wanting to follow Christianity are facing a “hostile situation,” according to Jagdish Mehara, a local minister, who was among the 12 arrested, told ucanews.com. Christians have been opposing the state’s anti-conversion laws on the grounds that they violate religious freedom as enshrined in the Indian Constitution.